


Of All Days...

by happyaspie



Series: Tony Stark is a Good Mentor [41]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: First Impressions, First Meetings, Good Friend Ned Leeds, Headaches & Migraines, James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark Friendship, James "Rhodey" Rhodes Gives Tony Stark A Hard Time, Non-descriptive Vomiting Scenes, Peter Parker Has a Bad Day, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Post-Spider-Man: Homecoming, Sick Character, Sick Peter Parker, Sickfic, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark is Good With Kids, Tony Stark is a Good Mentor, Tony Stark is on Peter Parker's Emergency Contacts List, Vomiting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-20
Updated: 2020-03-20
Packaged: 2021-02-28 22:27:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,688
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23054725
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/happyaspie/pseuds/happyaspie
Summary: Peter needs to be picked up from school due to a splitting migraine.  May is out of town and there is only one other person who had permission to sign him out of class.  Tony.  Only he wasn't expecting the man to show up with his best friend in the passenger seat.  Yay... he gets to meetWar Machinewhile wearing oversized sunglasses and carrying a sick bowl.Though to be fair, Rhodey wasn't exactly expecting to meet an unmasked Spider-man either...
Relationships: James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark, Ned Leeds & Peter Parker, Peter Parker & James "Rhodey" Rhodes, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Series: Tony Stark is a Good Mentor [41]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1397362
Comments: 31
Kudos: 1061





	Of All Days...

When Peter woke up for school on Tuesday morning he already knew it was going to be a bad day. He didn't even need his spider-sense to tell him that. He just knew. He woke up with a dull pain behind his right eye and knew that without proper care it would escalate into a full-fledged migraine-grade headache within a few hours. However, rather than going back to bed as he should have, he went into the kitchen, downed a large glass of water and got ready for school. With any luck, hydration alone would be enough to combat the oncoming ache in his skull. He'd already missed a day the week before due to an... _intern project_... and wasn't keen to miss another. Not when they had midterms coming up, anyway. He needed to study.

A second glass of water and a granola bar later, Peter pulled his hoodie over his shoulders and started towards the familiar bus stop. As he stood there waiting, he closed his eyes and tried to massage the pain out from behind his eye. He must have made some sort of a face as he did so because the woman next to him asked if he was okay. He, of course, told her that he was fine and then made a concentrated effort to keep his hands in his pockets. If a stranger could pick up on the fact that something was wrong that quickly, then Ned and MJ would start bugging him the moment they spotted him.

Walking into the school was a disaster. The halls smelled like a combination of body odor and whatever mystery meat the lunchroom was already starting to prepare for lunch and it made his stomach turn. Normally it wouldn't bother him that much, even with his enhanced senses but with the flickering florescent lights, aggravating his already painful head he was having trouble handling it all at once. Then to make matters worse, as he made his way towards the lockers the sounds of hundreds of voices echoing down the hall began to assault his ears and suddenly he couldn't wait to be inside the classroom. At least, it would be marginally quiet in there.

He tried to keep his face neutral as he approached his locker but he must have failed completely because Ned was giving him a look of worry before he'd made it all the way there. "I'm fine, Ned. Nothing happened. It's just a headache. I'll live.", he said before his friend had a chance to ask him about his extracurriculars. It seemed that anytime he wasn't feeling up to par, that was where his friend's mind went first. If he was being honest, that was fair. Nine times out of ten if he was in any kind of pain, it was due to an injury of one kind or another that he'd sustained on patrol. His healing factor was a gift but it didn't make any of it hurt any less, it just made it so that the pain didn't last as long. Yet, it did nothing for a headache. That had to run its course.

Ned didn't seem to buy into his excuse but he didn't press and for that, Peter was thankful. It wasn't like there was anything he could do about it. The only pain medication that worked for him was kept under lock and key at the Avengers Tower. Tony had tried to send some home with him but he'd refused. If someone other than himself took even half of one of those pills they would be in danger of a serious overdose. It wasn't worth, the risk. He could deal with the everyday aches and pains that came from his regular patrols without it. He rationalized that if he was ever in enough pain to _really_ want it, he would already be in the Med Bay. 

However, by the time his third-period rolled around the localized ache behind his eyes had spread to his temple and was throbbing so intensely that it was affecting his stomach. His mouth was growing sour and had to keep swallowing back the excessive amounts of saliva that were building under his tongue. Though, after a while, that didn't seem to be doing any good. "I need to be excused.", he rapidly announced as he practically leaped out of his chair and ran out of the classroom and into a bathroom stall, barely making it into a kneeling position before he began vomiting into the toilet. 

He sat there on his knees on the disgusting bathroom floor for several minutes before heard Ned came in carrying his backpack. "Hey, Dude. You've been in here for a long time, so Ms. Lamphrey said to bring you your stuff and a hall pass. She wants you to go to the clinic.", he said before getting a good look at his friend pale appearance. "I thought you couldn't get sick."

Peter sighed as he stood back up on shaky legs. "Not sick. Just my head.", he said as he proceeded to wash his hands and run some cool water over his face.

"You should call your aunt...", Ned suggested.

"Can't. She's out of town.", Peter replied even though he wouldn't have called her either way. He could handle a few more hours of school and then he could go home and flop into his bed for a couple of hours before patrolling.

After some thought, Ned sighed. "You could call my mom...", he said with a shrug.

"Why? She can't pick me up. She'd not on my list.", Peter replied with near annoyance. "Besides. I'm handling it."

"Peter... you're not handling. You're throwing up.", Ned accused as he handed over the bag along with the hall pass that had been written out for him. "There has to be more than one number on your list that you can call.", he added and when Peter flinched at the statement he cocked his head to the side in curiosity. "Who is it?"

Sighing deeply, Peter adjusted the strap of his backpack so that it was no longer digging into his shoulder and looked down at his shoes. "Mr. Stark."

"Really?", Ned asked with more enthusiasm than the situation called for. "That's so awesome and-- _now is not the time to talk about that_...", he lamely finished when he realized that his friend was glaring at him, completely unamused.

Before Ned could say anything else on the matter, Peter, walked towards the door. "I'll go see the nurse. Maybe I can sleep some of it off in there.", he said with a weak smile, though he knew that wouldn't actually work. It would give him a short break from the bright lights, though and that was good enough for him at the moment. 

The problem was that after laying down in the school clinic, rather than receding the headache amplified making his eyes periodically water. Then just as he was starting to drift into an uneasy sleep the nurse appeared at his side. "I'm afraid that you're thirty minutes are up, Sweetie. I can call your parents or you can head back to class, your choice.", she said softly but even so, the words felt like an icepick driving through his temple.

Deciding that as much as he didn't want to have to call anyone, staying at school sounded undoubtedly worse. A quick peek at the clock said that he would only be missing a few classes and one of those was chemistry. He already had that material down. It would be fine. All he wanted to do was to _go home._ "My aunts out of town. You'll have to call my other contact.", he said and tried not to pay attention to the small noise of surprise the woman made when she pulled his clinic card. He was just glad that is sounded like Tony had picked up rather than letting the unfamiliar number go to voice mail.

~o~o~o~o~o~

The Moment Tony hung up with the school he sighed. While he was completely on board for picking the kid up, especially if he wasn't feeling well, the timing couldn't have possibly been any worse. He'd already agreed to collect Rhodey from the airport and a glance at his watch revealed that the plane would be landing soon. As he grabbed his keys and his wallet, he considered having Happy get Rhodes but the private airport wasn't terribly far from the school and other than miserable, Peter was safe where he was for the time being. In theory, he could kill two birds with one stone. With that in mind, he grabbed his phone and dialed Rhodey's number.

"Hey--", Tony said the moment the call connected. 

"--Hey yourself.", Rhodey clipped back at the greeting. He'd been out of the country for more than a few months and wasn't prepared to sit in an airport waiting. "You had better not be calling to tell me that you can't pick me up or I swear to God you're paying for my ride."

"I'm coming to get you! Geez, calm down, Sourpuss.", Tony replied with a roll of his eyes. It wasn't as though he were _completely_ irresponsible _._ If he'd actually wanted to back out he would have had a backup plan in place. "I was just wondering about your ETA."

"Why? You have somewhere else to be?", Rhodes dryly replied.

"sort of... I just have another quick errand to run and I needed to know if I should do it before or after I picked you up.", Tony explained with a verbal shrug. He wasn't eager to bring up exactly what he needed to do quite yet. He hadn't exactly had a lot of time to chat with Rhodes during his military exploits. They'd exchanged a few texts here and there but none of them had mentioned him unofficially _adopting_ the teenager behind the spider-man mask. 

"I'm landing now", Rhodes dubiously replied. "...and since when do _you_ run errands."

"Well, it's not so much an errand as it is a favor.", Tony vaguely responded as he hopped into his car and revved the engine. "I'm on my way to get you but you need to be waiting out front for me.", he clipped, disconnecting the call before any more questions could be asked and with some strategic maneuvering, he managed to get to the airport just as his friend was exiting the plane. 

After a quick greeting, Tony grew relatively quiet. With one task taken care of, he was singularly focused on getting to Peter. All he knew was that the kid had a mammoth of a headache. Or he assumed so. All the nurse said was that his head had been bothering him but he already knew that the boy would have never called anyone, let alone him, to pick him up unless it had become unbearable. Then just as he was pulling into a parking space right outside of the school, he was pulled from his thoughts.

"Um... where is it that we're going?", Rhodey asked as he looked around only to find that they were currently flanked by a high school and a run-down looking corner store. He couldn't for the life of him figure out what sort of errand the man would need to take care of in either of those places.

"You mean where is it that _I'm going_.", Tony corrected as he put the car in park and hopped out. "...You can wait here. I need to run into Midtown, really quickly."

"are you...giving a speech?", Rhodes asked in confusion.

"No. Why would I--", Tony countered before remembering why he was there in the first place. "--never mind. I need to get inside. I'll be right back. Five minutes.", he added before darting through the front doors and into the office. From there he was escorted into the clinic where he was met with the most pathetic sight he'd ever seen. Peter was laying on a plastic-covered cot, in a dimly lit room with a small disposable reciprocal in his hand. "Hey, kid.", he whispered quietly. "You ready to bail?"

"Yeah.", Peter croaked as he looked at his mentor through squinted eyes. "I don't feel so good."

"I know, Buddy.", Tony acknowledged as he took his sunglasses off and slid them onto Peter's nose instead. "That should help some.". he added and smiled at the way they looked so oversized on the teenager's face. Then as he watched the boy drop the empty container back onto the bed he paused. "Take that bowl with you just in case, kiddo."

Peter nodded his head and together they walked out of the building and towards the waiting car. Tony opened the back door and helped his kid lay down in the backseat, ignoring the incredulous looks he was receiving from the front. Once he had the teenager settled, he got back behind the wheel and started to put the car in gear. 

"Tony... That's a _kid._ ", Rhodes, said as they began to drive off at a much more reasonable speed than he was used to Tony driving at. "You went inside a high school and came out with a kid and I'm pretty sure you just kidnapped him."

"It's not kidnapping if they call and ask you to pick 'em up.", Tony scoffed, though he could see the man's point. It wasn't like he was known for picking kids up from school. Though usually, he just waited outside for the boy to come to him after the final bell. That had been his first time walking into the office like that. Not that Rhodey knew any of that. "Now keep it down, he's sick.", he eventually added. He had no intention of explaining anything until he had the kid sorted out. 

"I'm not sick, Mr. Stark. It's just a headache and who are you--", Peter grumbled from the back of the car before registering who was in the passenger seat. "--Oh my God! You're Colonel Rhodes!", he shouted a little more loudly than he'd meant to but there he was looking all kinds of pathetic, laying in the back of _Tony Stark's_ car with a sick bucket in his hand... _meeting War Machine._ He wanted to say more but his brain seemed to be clicking like an engine that wouldn't turn and his mentor was obviously suppressing a laugh.

Turning between the teenager in the back seat and the man beside him, Rhodey shook his head and made a show of pulling at his ears. "...and you told _me_ to keep it down.", he said before settling his gaze on the pale face of the boy behind him. "It's nice to meet you, kid. What's your name?"

"Um, Peter. Peter Parker. It's really nice to...", Peter began but the more he spoke the more pain radiated from his skull and that combined with the car ride was causing his stomach to protest. He swallowed hard. "Mr. Stark? I think, I think--", he started with the intention of warning his mentor that he was going to be sick but his words were interrupted by a wave of nausea that made his breath hitch. However, Tony must have suspected what was about to happen because he could see the man's eyes going wide in the rearview mirror and heard him say something along the lines of, _'Over the bowl, kid!'_ , at the same moment that he began to dry heave.

"Sorry. Just don't...", Peter spoke as he spit the last of the excessive amounts of bitter saliva out of his mouth and into the cardboard container. "... feel so good."

"You're alright. We're going to get you into your bed and feeling better as soon as we get back to the tower.", Tony replied softly and nothing else was said until they pulled into the private underground garage, where Tony told Rhodes that he'd meet up with him later. After that, his attention went towards guiding Peter into the elevator that led to the penthouse. Upon their arrival, he had Peter chance into some more comfortable clothes and then disappeared to collect the necessary pain medication from medical. He returned several minutes later to find the kid, in a mostly dark room, already under the covers with his eyes squeezed shut. "That bad, huh, kid?", he asked with a gentle smile as he ran his hand through the boy's hair.

Peter nodded his head and opened one eye towards his mentor. "I threw up in front of War Machine.", he nearly whined. He was sure that was the most embarrassing thing that had ever happened to him. While he'd met the man in Germany as Spider-man, he'd yet to meet him as _himself._ Then he'd gone and ruined it by _puking_.

Chuckling lightly, Tony set down the bottle of water he'd taken from the kitchen and started pop the lid off of the pill container he'd carried in with him. "You also threw up in front of Iron Man. Does that not count for anything?"

"Yeah but you're... _you._ ", Peter returned with a wave of his hand. "That's different."

Tony smiled at the implications of those words and placed two tablets into Peter's open hand. "Here take these.", he said and when the boy had them in hand, he cracked open the water bottle and passed that over too. "At least half of it, kiddo.", he reminded and looked on as the boy did so without complaint. "There you go. Now, you can take a nap and when you wake up you can have a re-do on meeting Rhodey. Sound good?"

"Yeah.", Peter laughed and then rolled over onto his side. "G'night, Mr. Stark. Oh, and thanks for coming to get me."

"Not a problem, Buddy. I'm going down a few floors. I'll have FRIDAY let me know when you wake up."

~o~o~o~o~o~

"What was that about, Tony?", Rhodes asked the second Tony had made it down to the common room kitchen. He'd spent the last several minutes trying to sort out when his best friend had become a father and why he'd not told him about it. Even if he had been overseas for a while, it wasn't as if they'd _not spoken_. He wanted to think that if the man had found out he'd parented a child during that time, he would have told him. Then it had crossed his mind that the teenager had said, 'Mr. Stark' and that brought on a whole new set of suspicions and confusing thoughts. "Did you adopt a kid or something while I was gone? Am I an uncle now?"

"No, I did not adopt a kid.", Tony replied with a roll of his eyes. "That's Spider-man."

_"That_ was Spider-man?", Rhodes asked with wide eyes and a look of utter disbelief. "The same one that I watched get a multi-ton jetway dropped on him? That Spider-man?" 

"That would be the one.", Tony replied with regret because when his friend put it that way it sounded way worse than it actually was. Okay, so it was that bad but the kid had superpowers and they needed back up. The point was that Peter had held his own and came out completely unscathed... _thank god._

Despite the fact that he'd met Spider-man before the actual fight, he'd never really put much thought into how old he was. It was painfully obvious that he was the youngest one on the field but he'd sort of assumed that he was at least old enough to sign a legally binding contract... or, you know... _vote._ "I knew he was young but, Tony, that kid can't be any more than twelve."

"Sixteen.", Tony corrected as if that made it any better.

"Okay, fine. He's sixteen.", Rhodey conceded with a wave of his hand. "Po-tay-to, Po-tah-to. When did you become his...", he began before floundering. He was wracking his brain for what exactly he was supposed to call what he'd just bore witness to. He was coming up blank. "What exactly are you to him?"

Tony shrugged his shoulders and reached into his pocket to casually pull out a pack of gum, take a piece out, slowly unwrap it and then pop it into his mouth, while Rhodey grunted with annoyance. "He's my intern.", Tony finally said before passing over the gum packet, only to have it knocked out of his hand. "That was rude, don't you think?"

"Shut up, Tony. You pick your sick _intern_ up from school?", Rhodey asked with his eyebrows up in question.

Witha deep sigh, Tony threw his hands up into the air. "Okay. Fine. So maybe it goes a little deeper than that."

"A little deeper? Define deeper. Where are his _actual_ parents.", Rhodey asked with mild annoyance. Tony was making the entire conversation more tiresome than it needed to be. As far as qualities went, the fact that the man felt the need to be evasive about every little thing was by far his least favorite. Right up there with his lack of self-preservation skills.

"He's an orphan.", Tony replied matter-of-factly but when that comment made a little vein pop out on his friend's head he chuckled. "Calm down, he lives with his aunt." 

"So why are you picking him up instead of her?", Rhodey asked with a roll of his eyes.

"I'm assuming because she either couldn't get out of work or because she couldn't answer her phone.", Tony replied. He didn't actually know the answer to that question yet. Though he made a mental note to call and leave the woman a message as soon as he knew. The last thing he needed was to get yelled at for ' _not communicating_.' May was as insistent about that as Pepper. He was sure that together, the two of them would be a force to be reckoned with but that was a thought for another day. "I'm typically his last resort because he doesn't want to ' _bother me_ ' or something. That's how I knew it was feeling like steaming hot garbage."

Rhodey nodded his head and took several seconds to sort out everything he'd just been told before leaning forward onto his knees. "... okay so, let me get this straight. You're on his emergency contacts list at the school, you didn't so much as flinch when he nearly vomited in the car that I have heard you refer to as ' _your baby_ ' on more than one occasion, and he has a bedroom _in your house_. Does that sound about right?"

Unable to refute any of those accusations, Tonu leaned back in his seat and crossed one leg over the other. "More or less.", he roundabout admitted but even he knew that the answer fell solidly on the 'more' side of that scale. 

Rhodey nodded his head seriously but a smile was starting to creep across his face as he did so. "All of that...but your not his dad?"

Tony sniffed and cut his eyes to the side. While he wouldn't claim that his actions had been ' _fatherly_ ' he supposed he could perhaps see how someone else could potentially interpret it that way... _maybe_. He did care about the kid, after all. Enough to give him a room in his own home, look past the gross stuff and be willing to take responsibility for him... yeah, okay, He could definitely see where someone might mistake him for the kid's dad. "I mean when you put it like that, I guess I can see where you would think that but, no. Definitely not." 

For a long while, Rhodey let it go. They sat on the couch and talked about other things while drinking coffee and at some point, Tony ordered Chinese food, despite the fact that it was nowhere near dinner time. Rhodes didn't question it. If anything he was impressed that his friend was taking any sort of initiative to feed himself any kind of hot meal. Typically the man lived off of coffee and power bars. He was just about to say something about that when the AI interrupted his thoughts. 

"Boss, Mr. Parker is awake and asking of your whereabouts.", FRIDAY announced.

Tony smiled a soft smile and ignored the way Rhodey was ginning and mouthing the word's 'Y _ou are totally his dad_ ' from across the way. "Send him down, FRIDAY.", he replied before hesitating slightly. "Unless of course, he's still not feeling well. Do I need to come up there?"

The was a moment of pause before the AI replied, saying that Peter was on his way down prompting Tony to get up to meet him in the hall by the elevator. The second the kid stepped out he imdeatly noted that he no longer looked miserable. There was some color in his cheeks, he was smiling and was no longer squinting his eyes. "Hey, Buddy. Are you feeling better? You look better.", he said as he wrapped an arm around the boy's shoulders and started to walk back towards the common room where Rhodey was waiting for them. 

Peter leaned a little into the man's side and took a deep breath in through his nose. "Still a little groggy from the medicine but my head doesn't hurt as badly. I'm mostly just hungry.", he said and as if on cue his stomach began to grumble.

"Well, it's a good thing that I've already ordered some Chinese food for you then.", Tony replied with a curt nod of his head.

"Mushu Chicken?", Peter asked hopefully.

"Yep and extra eggrolls.", Tony replied with a smirk. As if the kid needed to question him. He knew his favorite foods

"Yay. Thank you Mr. Stark", Peter tiredly cheered, pausing when Tony did, just outside of the threshold leading to the common area. 

Deciding to be nice and give the kid a head's up about his pending re-introduction to Rhodey, Tony placed a hand on the kid's shoulder to gain his full attention. "Alright, I've sent May a message to tell her I've got you but you might want to call her too. In the meantime, are you ready to meet Rhodey properly this time?", he asked and waited while Peter hurried tried to smooth down his sleep tangled curls. Then with the 'okay', he led the way into the room where Rhodey stood up to greet them. 

"I hear we're having a do-over.", Rhodes said as he held out his hand for the teenager to shake. "It's nice to meet you, Peter. You can call me Rhodey.", he added with a warm smile.

"It's nice to meet you too, um... Mr. Rhodey... sir. I'm sorry that I threw up in front of you.", Peter rapidly returned without filter. He could hear Tony laughing at him in the background. 

Shaking his head, Rhodey looked the kid that was _definitely_ Tony's kid and wrapped an arm around his shoulders, pulling him towards the couch. "Eh. I've seen worse come out of Tony. He ever tell you about the time that he snuck off and went to a frat party while we were at MIT together?", he asked and Peter shook his head while Tony rolled his eyes. He knew where that was going but he didn't bother trying to stop it. He wasn't likely to be able to anyway. _Rhodey had a big mouth_. All he could do was watch it happen, which to be honest was rather amusing. His friend looked practically _gidd_ y as prepared for the retelling and Peter's eyes had already become owlish with anticipation. 

Shaking his head, Tony sat down in the corner of the room and pretended to be more annoyed than he actually was as Rhodey eagerly began his narrative. 

"You, my friend are going to love this...", Rhodey said, looking away from Peter just long enough to wink in Tony's direction before he continued. "...Now, keep in mind that Tony wasn't really any older than you are right now when that happened but _let me tell you_ that night ended very _poorly_..."


End file.
